Snowed-in South makes best of day off
DURHAM, N.C. — Snowed-in Southerners made the best of a day without work or school Monday while officials warned that roads remained treacherous even as the worst of a wintry storm departed.
Snow, sleet and freezing rain tapered off across states from Georgia to West Virginia that were recovering from outages, canceled flights and numerous car wrecks. But officials cautioned that Tuesday’s commute could be treacherous as plunging temperatures turn melted snow into ice on roads. The storm was blamed for at least three deaths in North Carolina.
And an overturned truck full of pigs added to traffic delays in western North Carolina.
Scores of schools canceled class Monday, and many businesses and government offices — including Virginia’s executivebranch agencies in Richmond — were closed.
Snowfall totals topped 20 inches in some areas of the western part of the state, according to the National Weather Service.
A truck driver died Sunday after suffering what appeared to be a heart attack from shoveling out his rig that got stuck at the height of the storm along Interstate 77 in the central part of the state, Yadkin County Emergency Services Director Keith Vestal said.
The state emergency operations center also said one man died Sunday when a tree fell on him in Mecklenburg County, while an ailing woman died in Haywood County when her oxygen was cut off due to power outages.
Flight cancellations and delays continued Monday at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, the sixth busiest airport in the country. The airport had nearly 400 cancellations, about onefourth of its scheduled flights.